3013: SYNERGY: A 3013 Novella (3013: The Series) (7 page)

“Alexis and her mates are currently visiting
Xavier and Galan’s sister, Katra,” Morgan said. “She just mated to Lord Jaden
Tor. I met them when—”

“My mother was Tarin!” Eden exclaimed. “I
would like to meet them.”

“Well, they’re on Tartarus right now. I
can contact my friend, and—”

“There is no need. I will find them,
and I will let them know that I have met you.” Eden stood up as if to leave.
Before she did, she spoke hesitantly. “Would you like for me to bring your gift
to your friend? I can assure you, I will make sure she receives it. I vow that
I will see it into her hands for you.”

Morgan froze, shocked by Eden’s offer.
She knew how seriously the Dragon Warriors took their vows “I…I would
appreciate that, very much. Thank you.”

Eden bowed her head slightly as Morgan
stood up and picked up both of the blue blankets. “Oh, I should probably wrap
these or something before you take them.”

She gasped as the two blankets disappeared
from her hands to be replaced by a rectangular wooden box with an intricate
carving of five dragons surrounding two smaller dragons on the top. “Stars,
this is so beautiful!” Morgan stared up at the tall Dragon Warrior in awe. “They
are going to love this. I can’t thank you enough.”

“It was nothing.”

It might seem like nothing to Eden—who
could wield magic with a thought—but to Morgan, it was a gift beyond compare.
Going on instinct, she picked up the pink blanket she’d made and carried it
along with the box as she crossed the few feet over to Eden. Holding the pink
blanket out, Morgan said, “I would like for you to have this. It’s nothing
compared to what you can make with your magic, but I made it myself.”

Eden stared down at it, then looked at
Morgan. “Why would you give that to me?”

“As a thank you. And as a welcome gift
to a new friend,” Morgan said with a smile.

“You should keep it for your own
youngling.”

Morgan braced herself for the pain that
usually came, but she relaxed again when she realized that she had truly found
peace with her situation. “I can’t have children, since I’m infertile, but I
would like for you to have it. When you find your mate, I hope you will be able
to use it.”

“I am honored,” Eden said softly as she
accepted the blanket. “You are a good human, Morgan D’Sil. I will treasure this
gift of yours.”

Morgan blinked when both items suddenly
disappeared. “What—?”

“Do not worry, they are safely stashed
away on my vessel.”

“Ah…okay.” Morgan noticed a curious
shift in Eden’s glowing gold eyes, then she sucked in a harsh breath as Eden
reached out and gripped her shoulder hard. A strange sensation washed through
Morgan, almost like a warm tingling inside of her. Panic set in, but as quickly
as it began, Eden released her and took a step back.

“What was that? What did you do to me?”

Eden smiled and took another step back.
“Nothing to harm you. I just wished to thank you. We will be leaving here
shortly. Now that we have visited this station and Xenthian, we will be heading
to the New Vega we have heard so much about.”

Morgan opened her mouth, then closed it
again. After a few seconds, she was finally able to form words. “I’m sorry, did
you say you were on Xenthian?”

“Aye, we were curious. There has not
been any new information about them in thousands of years, and when we were
back on our home world, many of the elders of my race expressed an interest in them.
Everyone had assumed the Xenon had perished long ago, so it was intriguing when
we heard they were back.”

“Were the Dragon Warriors allies with
the Xenon before they disappeared?”

Eden shrugged. “It was a long time ago,
so I am not sure. At the moment we are indifferent, although I do find their
magic fascinating. It works differently than ours, but is still powerful. We cloaked
ourselves to observe them, but I believe they were able to sense us, so we cut
our trip short. Thank you for the conversation, Morgan, but I must leave. I
hope I will see you again someday.”

“I would like that.” After a brief
pause, she added, “I’ll be living on the D’Aire home world, so if you ever stop
there, please come visit me.”

“I will. Now, I need to collect my
sister from Asylum so we can be on our way.”

Morgan’s eyes widened. “She went back
to Asylum after what happened earlier?”

Eden sent her a wicked grin. “My sister
never left.”

Then, she disappeared.

“Holy fuck,” Morgan whispered.

“Morgan?” Orion walked into the
observation deck and looked around. “I thought I heard you speaking to
someone.”

“I was. I just had the most fascinating
visit with Eden Nazira…one of the Dragon Warriors we saw earlier.”

Orion’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”

Morgan nodded, then told him about the
conversation she’d just had with Eden. When she was done, she said, “I’ve been
around Dragon Warriors before. They have excellent control over their emotions,
but I can still sense something from them. With Eden…it was as if she wasn’t
even here.”

“That is unusual. Perhaps she has
better control of her energy and emotions because her mother was Tarin,” Orion
speculated.

“Maybe. It was still sort of unnerving
not to feel anything. Kind of cool, but also strange.” Remembering Eden
grabbing her shoulder made Morgan shiver. Even when she’d been touching her,
Morgan hadn’t felt anything from Eden, and that had never happened before.

Orion rubbed his hands up and down her
arms in comfort. “We should probably contact the Adaro brothers who own New
Vega, and warn them that they might have two Dragon Warriors visiting soon.” He
paused as he considered it. “Actually, I might contact my niece, Mya Spartan,
instead. She is currently on that floating pleasure palace with them, and if I
am correct, she’ll soon be mated to the Krytos brothers.”

“Wait…what? Mya Spartan is your niece?”
Morgan asked, surprised. “Are you talking about Regent Ian Spartan’s daughter?
High Commander Jax Spartan’s sister?”

At Morgan’s look of shock, Orion
explained that it was simply an honorary title. He had been visiting Earth when
Donna Spartan-Rollins had gone into labor one evening at an event he’d been
attending. It had happened so fast, that the only way to get her to the
med-center in time had been for him to fly her there. He had been declared
Mya’s godfather after she’d been born, and as she got older, she had always
called him uncle.

During that time in his life, Orion had
all but given up at ever finding his keeper. Witnessing the love between Ian
Spartan, Donna Spartan-Rollins and Jack Rollins, and the tiny miracle that they
had created had given him a glimmer of hope for the future. And that hope had
brought him to Morgan…the female who now owned his heart.

When he was done explaining how he knew
the Spartan-Rollins family, he said, “Tavius, Daimon and Maddox Adaro won’t be
happy if the Nazira sisters end up killing anyone on New Vega.”

Morgan sighed as she left him to
retrieve her bag. “Maybe Mya can tell her brother, as well. I thought about
contacting Jax to let him know that we have two new Dragon Warriors running
around, but I don’t want to end up on his shit list again. I got yelled at
enough when he was the commander of the Capital.”

“We’ll let Mya take care of that for us,”
he agreed as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. He
leaned down and brushed his lips lightly over hers.

She hummed in pleasure, then asked, “How
was your meeting?”

“Everything has been settled with Adric
and Iyana. They contacted the Conclave, and Blaiz is to be appointed in my
place. I will tell him tomorrow before the grand opening ceremony, but right
now, I want to be alone with you, keeper.”

“Speaking of,” she said breathlessly.
“You know how you said you were scheduled to leave in a few days? Well, I’m
ready to go with you, my love.”

A wave of happiness swept through him
as he stared down at her. He loved her so much that he almost forgot how to
breathe. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I love you, Orion. Let’s go start
our life together on your home world.”

“I love you, too, Morgan. More than
words can say.”

“I feel it,” she whispered, then she
let out a gasp as he swept her into his arm.

“Then I shall take you home.” His voice
lowered. “But right now, I have great need of you, my love. It has been too
long since I have been inside you.”

“I guess I have to do something about
that as soon as we get back to our suite,” she murmured as she leaned in to
nibble on his neck.

His laughter echoed as he carried her
down the hallway.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The official grand opening of Alpha
Station: X21 began at noon.

Since most of the crew and the guests
that had come for the celebration had partied all night, the ceremony had been
scheduled later to accommodate the masses.

Orion and Morgan had woken up early,
but they’d spent the morning hours making slow, lazy love together. Even though
they had spent most of the night making love, they were both insatiable when it
came to touching one another. They would have fallen back to sleep, but their
rest was interrupted when Daven pounded his fist on their door in order to get
them up and moving.

After they agreed to meet at one of the
few restaurants on the station in an hour, Daven left to go wake Blaiz. Morgan
and Orion showered together, both of them disappointed that they didn’t have
time to engage in any love play if they wanted to be on time. While Morgan got
dressed, Orion tried to contact Mya Spartan. When she didn’t answer, he told
himself he would try to contact her on New Vega again later.

Morgan had chosen not to wear her
uniform, although most of the crew would be wearing their dress uniforms for
the grand opening ceremony. Instead, she chose one of the few dresses she had.
The shade of green matched her eyes, and she chose to leave her hair down since
Orion seemed to love running his hands through her long curls. She thought the
way she was dressed made it clear that she was stepping away from her position
as an Alliance officer, and moving forward as the keeper of a D’Aire.

The restaurant was packed with people
when Orion and Morgan arrived, but Blaiz and Daven had already gotten them a
table in the back corner. As soon as they all sat down, the server came over to
their table. They ordered their food and drinks, and while they waited, Morgan
entertained them with the story of how she met Eden Nazira last night.

The two males were shocked, and
fascinated that the two Dragon Warriors had gone down to the surface of
Xenthian. “If they were able to detect the Dragon Warriors while they were
invisible, the Xenon must have very powerful magic,” Blaiz said. “That is a
scary thought if they aren’t at as friendly as we hope.”

“They have to at least tolerate the
Alliance. If their soulmates end up being humans, they can’t war against them,”
Orion argued. “Besides, they didn’t close themselves off for so long just to
start fighting now.”

“That’s true, and who knows if their
soulmates are D’Aire, Krytos, or even Dragon Warriors, too,” Morgan said. Their
food was delivered, and as they began to eat, she held up a french fry and
wagged it in the air at Blaiz and Daven. “I wonder if your keepers are Xenon.”

Orion smiled at his two friends who
looked quite uncomfortable. “You might get a chance to find out, since Blaiz
had been approved to replace me as ambassador.”

“I can’t believe they actually agreed,”
Blaiz said, sounding a little winded.

“Of course they did,” Orion scolded. “All
eleven advisors ruled in your favor. You are a seeker, and my recommendation.
They will hold the ceremony in a few weeks once we are back home. You remember
what I had to go through when I got appointed, don’t you?”

Blaiz sighed. “Damn, I forgot about
that. That was a long day.”

Orion felt Morgan’s confusion through
their bond and explained. “When I was chosen to represent the D’Aire as an
ambassador, the Conclave held a small ceremony to appoint me. However, the day
before the ceremony, I had to meditate in the Cavern of Silence—one of the most
sacred places on our world.”

“It’s hot, damp, and totally creepy,
because if you even whisper in there, it echoes so loud that your ears hurt,”
Daven said with a wince.

“How would you know? You’ve never been
in there,” Orion argued.

“I remember what you told us.”

“It’s a beautiful, peaceful place,”
Orion corrected. “There is a pool of water that glows a bright green, and the cavern
walls sparkle as if were made of precious gems.”

“It sounds pretty,” Morgan said.

Orion smiled. “You, my love, might be
one of the few humans to see it for yourself. Since you are coming home with
me, I suggest we speak to your regents to ask for you to be made an ambassador
yourself.”

Morgan’s eye widened. “Me? Why in all
the worlds would they make me an ambassador?”

“It’s an option to consider if you want
to remain an officer in the Alliance.”

Shaking her head, Morgan reached for
his hand. She hadn’t worn her gloves today, so she reveled in the feel of his
bare skin against hers. “I want to focus on my new life with you. I don’t need
to keep a tie to the past.”

Orion squeezed her hand. “When we
return, you and I can both help my brother run the palace. I’m sure he will
gladly hand over some of his duties to us.”

“Speaking of duties, we should leave if
we want to get to the grand opening ceremony on time,” Blaiz reminded them.

They finished and paid for their meal,
then made their way up to the top level of the space station on one of several
elevators. As they stepped off the elevator into a large lobby, Orion noticed
two massive doors were opened at the other end of the room that lead into the
main chamber.

He started forward, but Morgan stopped
him before he could follow the crowd of people through those doors, pointing to
one side of the grand, double staircase that lead up to the second level.

“We’ll be able to see everything better
from up on the balconies,” she told him.

The males followed her upstairs, and
they entered the impressive main chamber. The large, circular space rivaled the
most elaborate of ballrooms, and had the most spectacular view. The balconies
ran around the back half of the room, but the entire front of the room had been
made of thick, treated glass that made it look as if it wasn’t even there. The
glass ran up above the balconies, until it met the metal ceiling, but the far
side of the room made it seem as if people could reach out and touch a star.

“This is the showpiece of the station,”
Morgan explained. “When the main room here isn’t being used for special events,
the lower level is filled with chairs and couches so people can relax and enjoy
the view. There are a few smaller meeting rooms up here on the balcony, but
most of this was supposed to be specialty shops.”

“Why are they all empty?” Daven asked.

“The commander had to cancel the
contracts with the shopkeepers, because we don’t know if it’s safe yet to have
citizens here. Hopefully, when we reach an agreement with the Xenon, all of
these stores will be filled.”

Orion looked down at the large room
below and saw a sea of people waiting for the ceremony to begin. The four of
them passed groups of people who were already on the balcony, and stopped when
they reached an empty space. A stage had been set up in front of the glass
window. Commander Jacobson and two regents were already sitting behind a podium
that had been placed in the front of the stage.

When Regent Everett Marks stood up and
walked to the front of the stage, the crowd went silent. He began to speak, and
after several minutes, Daven whispered, “This guy sure likes to talk. I hope
this ends soon.”

Orion leaned down and said, “I thought
you said your friend, Olivia, was supposed to be giving the speech?”

“She was…or is. I think this is just an
intro, and she’s going to speak next. I hope it’s soon, because I think a few
people down there have passed out from boredom.”

Daven coughed to cover his laughter as
Blaiz muttered, “Regent Marks is an ass.”

Morgan turned to him in surprise. “Why
do you say that?”

Shrugging, Blaiz said, “He’s a
self-entitled prick, who loves his position more than he cares about doing his
job. Orion, you agree, don’t you?”

Orion shifted on his feet, then sighed.
“He is not my favorite person.”

Another few minutes went by, and
finally, Regent Marks introduced Commander Jacobson. Morgan shook her head as
there was a stilted round of applause from the audience. “He makes it sound
like no one here knows who she is. She’s been commander here since the entire
crew boarded.”

Olivia stood up and walked over to the
podium. She scanned the crowd, then said, “Alpha Station: X21 is officially
open. Thank you for coming.”

The crowd when wild, yelling and
clapping as Olivia left the stage. Morgan burst out laughing. “Hold on, let me
catch her before she leaves. I’d like to tell her we’re bonded, and introduce
you to her.”

Morgan hurried from the balcony and
down the stairs just in time to catch Olivia coming out of the doors below. She
caught the commander halfway to the stairway leading down to the lower level.
“Hey! Nice speech, Commander.”

Olivia turned, grinning. Her smile
disappeared as she saw Morgan. “You look nice, but why are you out of uniform?”

Morgan looked down, since she’d
forgotten she was wearing a dress. “About that, there is someone I want you to
meet. A few days ago, I discovered that I’m Ambassador Orion D’Sil’s keeper.
I…I think I’m going to leave with him to live on his home world.”

 “Holy nova, you’re bonded? I’m so
happy for you, Morgan! Go, enjoy your life with him, and don’t look back. You
fucking hate your job, so there’s no reason for you to stay here. But I expect
you to call or visit every once in a while.”

“I promise, I will.” Morgan got a
little choked up as she hugged Olivia, then pulled back. “I love him, Olivia. I
never knew I could feel this way about anyone. I wish you the same happiness
I’ve found with Orion.”

Olivia smiled, then froze as her gaze
tracked over to look at something behind Morgan. “Ah…why don’t you stop by my
office before you leave. I’ve gotta go now.”

Bemused, Morgan watched as her friend walked
away. Understanding struck when the two Tavish brothers hurried after Olivia. She
smiled and turned around, intending to head back upstairs to join Orion.

People were flooding out of the main
chamber, and Morgan had to weave her way through the crowd in order to get back
to the staircase. She’d just reached the steps when someone grabbed her arm, jerking
her into the hallway that led to the restrooms. Her breath left in a rush as
her back was slammed up against the wall, and her eyes widened when Lorn T’Mir
sneered down at her.

“You stupid little human,” he snarled
in disgust. “You told Orion not to endorse me as ambassador, didn’t you?”

Morgan didn’t need to read him to tell
how much he hated her, but his revulsion and rage began to seep into her like
an oily, malevolent invader. The bond she had with Orion kept her from getting
overwhelmed, but her own temper still flared to life. She jerked away from Lorn,
and glared at him. “Get your fucking hands off me!”

Pushing past him, she headed out of the
hallway, not wanting to be trapped with the angry male. He grabbed her again
right before she was out in the open, but this time he gripped her shoulder
hard enough to bruise.

“Not so fast, you human bitch. I’m not
done with you yet. I know it was you. I’ve heard you’re an empath, and you
can’t keep your nose out of everyone’s business.”

She jerked away from him as an angry
snarl filled the air. Morgan turned to see two of her friends coming toward
them. The twins, Rhen and Sabar Torven, had come to X21 to set up a trading
post in preparation for the Xenon joining the Alliance. Sabar pushed a Tarin
female behind him as he and his brother stepped forward. Both males’ amber eyes
were burning with anger as they stared at Lorn.

“Watch your fucking mouth when you
speak to her,” Sabar growled.

“And if you touch her again, we’ll have
to rip your hands off,” Rhen added.

Lorn sneered at them. “Mind your own
business, cats.”

“Our friend is our business,” Sabar
corrected.

“Morgan? Are you well? I can feel
something is wrong.”

She relaxed a little when she heard
Orion’s voice in her head.
“I was just about to come back up to you when
Lorn grabbed me. He knows I’m an empath, and that I’m the reason he isn’t going
to be an ambassador.”

“I’m coming to you, my love.”

Morgan felt comforted that he was
coming to her, but she wasn’t about to back down from the asshole in front of
her. Before Rhen and Sabar could respond to Lorn, she blasted him with her own
wrath as she moved to stand out in the lobby

“It’s not my fault you aren’t getting
the job. It’s yours. Why the hell did you want to be an ambassador when you
hate humans? Oh, and by the way, I can tell you hate the Helios, too.”

Lorn bristled with his rage, and his
face turned red. “You know nothing! How dare you lie to your keeper just to
make yourself important! You will retract whatever you told Orion, and tell the
truth.”

“I am telling the truth, and you
fucking know it!”

Lorn started to lunge at her, but
before he could touch her, a loud bellow of rage sounded from above. Morgan
looked up in time to see Orion flying toward them. His shirt was hanging in
tatters around his torso, and she realized that his wings had burst through the
material.